We're surrounded by things that are named for people after they died. That's a point that strikes me when I read a local
history book: Oh, so that's where the name of that street/school/ town comes from. For instance, in my earlier years in Colorado
Springs, I covered a lecture by late, great area author Marshall Sprague, where I learned that Irving Howbert was close to being
William Palmer's right-hand man. My younger son, in turn, got a kick out of finding that out when he attended Howbert
Elementary some years later.
Not that I'm jumping on this subject to steal a march from intrepid historian/Pioneer columnist Mel McFarland. In fact, I'm
looking forward to reading the naming bits he might come up with. Actually, what prompted this whimsy was a recent encounter
with someone who's had something public named for him... while he's still alive.
Now, when that happens, you know the person must cast a long shadow. The only other local so recognized (that I know of) is
Robert Isaac. Good old “Mayor Bob” has a whole airport in his name.
Dave Hughes, by contrast, “only” has an alley. But remember, he is still alive. Anybody who's gone to a civic meeting where he's
spoken can attest to that. Hughes, for those of you who are new in town, was pretty much the brains behind everything you see
of consequence in Old Colorado City, not to mention many aspects of the Westside as a whole.
Furthermore, it's not “just” an alley, as he himself pointed out at a meeting of the Old Colorado City Security & Maintenance
District this week; the specially named segment jutting off the zero block of South 25th Street is the “Dave Hughes Cyberpath”
(in honor of his separate, international renown in electronic communications). And so it was with an impish grin, during the
streetlight discussion at the Maintenance District meeting, that he took the opportunity of informing City Utilities his cyberpath
could use better illumination. How can they say no?